Two Gazan girls first to arrive in UK for medical treatment

Two Palestinian girls with serious health conditions have been brought to the UK for private medical treatment.

The Gazan children are the first to be granted temporary UK visas since the war between Hamas and Israel broke out in October 2023.

Ghena, five, and Rama, 12 arrived in the UK from Egypt on Saturday to be treated for conditions which cannot be dealt with in war torn Gaza, Project Pure Hope (PPH) said.

Ghena's mother said she hoped other children "would get the chance" to benefit from the chance to receive medical care overseas.

Both suffer from pre-existing conditions which require specialist treatment not available in Gaza, where the healthcare system has come under huge pressure during the war between Hamas and Israel.

Rama - who has a lifelong bowel condition - described her life in Khan Younis, where her family home was destroyed, and spoke about her hopes for the future.

She told BBC News: "We were so scared. We were living in tents and shrapnel from airstrikes used to fall on us.

"Mum used to suffer so much going to hospitals while bombs were falling and would stand in long queues just to get me a strip of pills.

"Here I'll get treatment and get better and be just like any other girl."

Her mother Rana said: "I'm very happy for Rama because she'll get treatment here.

"As a mother, I felt so sorry in Gaza because I couldn't do anything to help her. 

"To see your daughter dying in front of your eyes, day by day, watching her weaken and get sicker – it pained me."

Ghena has fluid pressing against her optic nerve, which could lead to her losing the sight in her left eye if she does not have an operation.

Her mother Haneen told the BBC: "Before the war, Ghena was having medical treatment in Gaza, in a specialised hospital.

"She was getting tests done every six months there and treatment was available."

But the hospital was destroyed a week after the war began, she said, and Ghena was no longer able to get the care she needed.

"She began complaining about the pain," Haneen continued. "She would wake up screaming in pain at night."

"I hope she gets better here," Haneen added.

"In Gaza there are thousands of injured and sick children who need medical treatment. I hope they get a chance like Ghena."

PPH and PCRF worked with the World Health Organization (WHO) to secure their temporary stay in the UK and private funding for their healthcare.

PCRF chairwoman Vivian Khalaf told the BBC: "We came across these cases through an ongoing list that is getting longer and longer of children who need urgent medical treatment outside of Gaza."

"The current physicians and hospitals that continue to be operating to whatever extent have determined that the treatment isn't available within Gaza."

Khalaf said 200 children had been relocated for medical treatment via the initiative, including to the US, Jordan and Qatar, as well as several European countries.

She was unable to say how many children in total had been identified as needing to be moved to the care of international health services in the future.

PPH co-founder and healthcare executive Omar Din paid tribute to the private donors who had allowed the two girls' care to be provided at "no cost to the NHS or [UK] taxpayer", and said Gaza's health system was "near-total collapse".

He continued: "Hospitals are overwhelmed or destroyed, basic medicines are scarce, and infection rates have soared."

"These young patients have already endured unimaginable physical trauma and profound psychological suffering."

The World Health Organization (WHO) said earlier this month that conditions at Gaza's hospitals - several of which have been damaged during the fighting - are "beyond description".

The Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 50,980 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.